Apparently people are still paying for Opera support

Just the other day I was wondering whether it’s time to remove the “Buy” link (see screenshot below) from the menu bar on Opera’s website. Having a “Buy” link featured so prominently on the page may give the false impression to potential users that Opera cost money.

It turns out that some people are still using Opera’s support. This fellow Opera user was having issues with his Opera and contacted the paid Opera support. The support team was able to narrow down his problem to VNC.

I’m curious to know whether any of you still use Opera’s paid support.

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Daniel, do you know why Opera has set the limit on downloading the Wii browser, Opera Mobile, and Opera for Windows Smart Phone until June. Is it a random date, or is it Opera’s way of trying to spread their browser as quickly as possible, or is 9.5 coming out then?

It is not the most important thing that you can download Opera Mobile for PPC+SM until June for free. More important you can use it only until 1. June 2007.
That’s a quite normal procedure for a public BETA test and current stable Opera 8.60u2 still has the 30-days-trial label.

The new Opera Mobile 8.65beta adds a lot of often requested features like flash support and grab and scroll. There is an earlier post on OperaWatch and I wrote a review).

I never use paid support for anything. I rarely read manuals. I figure if I need support than tech support is no help (most tech supports I have dealt with are usually idiots). While Opera Support may be good, I have never had any problems that needed help.

@IceArdor, the Wii being free until June is entirely Nintendo’s decision. Nintendo is in total control on how the Wii browser is distributed. As for Opera Mobile, I’m not sure why June was picked as the date. Could be random.

@Investor, I’m sure you’ve seen the Opera support for the mobile browser on the forums too. 🙂

@Nike, hmm… 🙂

Ted

April 29, 2007 at 12:07 am

I have definitely used the paid support, since I paid for a browser license way back when. I have had issues that I could not find an answer to and I was glad to have he option to get help from a real live Opera person. I say leave the option there, but make it explicit that it pertains to premium support, not to buy the browser itself.

Michael Mc

April 29, 2007 at 3:31 pm

The Opera Help and community helped me when I got stuck… it didn’t even occur to me to buy premium support. Although, I think I do have it… I got Opera at that party when they gave away ad-free copies.

A purchased mobile license, includes Premium Support. So they get help within 24 hours.

For the Opera versions preinstalled on phones, the Forum traffic is too small to provide help before annoyances kick in. No point in risking that. Besides user should have the choice. Fast help may be important for many. Price is hardly an issue… offer Premium Support 😉

JohnB

May 1, 2007 at 7:49 pm

I bought Opera years ago and have used paid support on a number of occasions.

Interestingly enough, I have an open question on it right now — been open for more than a week — so I was wondering if it’s still working.

I also went to update my profile when I logged the question and the maximum release number in the profile area was Opera 9.0. Hmmmm.

I’ve never used paid support, but thought I’d mention a benefit that I wouldn’t have thought of… I used to work at a university and was successful in getting Opera installed in all the student computer lab machines (and made available to staff on request). To get a new bit of software installed in a large scale computing environment you have to prove that it can and will be supported.

At the time, Opera was free for unis but not the world; so there was a “priority support” deal that unis could sign up to. That plus the bailout option of being able to buy support actually made the product more attractive to the execs making the decision. Essentially large organisations actually want to be able to pay for support – since they don’t want to rely on “goodwill” support like forums.

It’s a reasonable concern – the tech support crew don’t want to be lumped with an unsupported product and hundreds of students asking for help. They’ve got to be able to get support quickly if they need it.

The other big thing was Opera moving to an MSI installer – man did the techs grumble about the previous non-MSI version. Again, quite a reasonable issue; since MSI installers were infinitely easier for them to roll out.